Captain Marvel Will Digitally De-Age Samuel L. Jackson For The Whole Film

[Black Panther]

Samuel L. Jackson will appear to be a lot younger when he plays Nick Fury in the upcoming Captain Marvel film, which is set to be released next year. That makes sense, since the film is set in the 1990s, a previously unseen period in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Captain Marvel is directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, and stars Brie Larson as titular hero Carol Danvers. This is Marvel Studios' first solo female-fronted superhero movie, and Larson initially believed taking on the role could be a burden. Thankfully, she changed her mind. Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law, Gemma Chan, and Lee Pace also have major roles. The movie isn't due to open until March 19, making the wait for Captain Marvel's arrival longer than usual for Marvel Fans who have become used to a new MCU film opening every few months.

In a new interview with Slash Film, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige talks about the de-aging of Michelle Pfeiffer through digital technology in Ant-Man & The Wasp, and indicates the same technology will be used on Samuel L. Jackson in Captain Marvel. "Well, I think having the option is pretty amazing. And I think having the technology and even without spoiling anything, Sam Jackson is shooting a movie for us right now that takes, where he’s entirely 25 years younger the whole movie," Feige notes, admitting that the fact that actors like Jackson, 69, have aged well helps with the technology.

Until relatively recently, making stars look younger for flashback roles had not been effective. For example, one could go back to 1996's Evita, where Madonna was supposed to look like a teenager at the beginning of the film, despite being 37 years old while filming. And one could then go back 10 years before that when Kathleen Turner, in her early 30s, was also playing a teenager in Peggy Sue Got Married. Her performance was acclaimed, but most agreed that the makeup wasn't able to hide her real age.

However, since 2008's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, updated CGI technology has made de-aging a lot more believable, and Marvel Studios has been on the cutting edge. In addition to the believable de-aging they did with Michelle Pfeiffer, Marvel did an amazing job of de-aging Michael Douglas for the first Ant-Man in 2015, a feat repeated in Ant-Man & The Wasp. Then, in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, Robert Downey Jr. was perfectly de-aged. It'll be interesting to see how Marvel de-ages Samuel L. Jackson, especially because they are doing it for the entire film, which will presumably require much more intensive work than would de-aging him for a single scene.

KEY RELEASE DATES
Ant-Man & The Wasp (2018) release date: Jul 06, 2018
Captain Marvel (2019) release date: Mar 08, 2019
The Avengers 4 / Untitled Avengers Movie (2019) release date: May 03, 2019
Untitled Spider-Man: Homecoming Sequel (2019) release date: Jul 05, 2019